After China banned the import of plastic in 2017, Malaysia began buying discarded plastic from China's former exporters, including the US, UK, and Australia. Illegal recycling factories in Jenjarom quickly seized the opportunity to get rid of the waste, with many of them either burying or burning scraps.

More than 30 of these factories were recently shut down, but their piles of plastic have transformed the town into a giant landfill. Here's what it looks like on the ground.

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In 2017, China banned the import of "foreign garbage," a category that includes 24 types of recyclable and solid waste.

A worker dismantles electronic waste at the government-sponsored recycling park in the township of Guiyu, Guangdong Province, China, in 2018.
Aly Song/Reuters

Instead of handing over un-recyclable scraps and parts to waste centers, the illegal factories cut costs by burning those scraps, releasing noxious fumes.

Burning plastic can release toxic chemicals like mercury, dioxins, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the atmosphere, which poses a threat to human health.

A 2016 study found that burning plastic waste could increase the risk of heart disease and cause damage to the nervous system. The study also noted side effects like rashes, headaches, nausea, and worsened asthma.

The link between burning plastic waste and cancer is more tenuous, since it depends on how long a person is exposed. Over a long period of time, plastic fumes could become carcinogenic.

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Local residents have said they started to become ill around the same time that the garbage piles arrived.